FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT JAPAN AIRLINES - PAGE 4

TOKYO: Japan agreed on Sunday to give a new lifeline to troubled Japan Airlines by doubling a state-funded loan for the carrier to 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion). The government decision comes after shares in Asia's largest carrier plunged to a record low last week when investors were spooked by reports that bankruptcy was a possible option for the beleaguered airline. In November, the state-run Development Bank had set a credit line of 100 billion yen for Japan Airlines and has already paid out just over half of the total.

TOKYO: Japan Airlines, after declaring bankruptcy last month, appeared set on Monday to keep its current tie-up with American Airlines and end talks to defect to the world's biggest carrier Delta. US giants American and Delta Air Lines have been competing to invest in ailing JAL, which filed for bankruptcy with 26 billion dollars of debt in one of Japan's biggest ever corporate failures. Both airlines have circled JAL, hoping to benefit from a new US-Japan "open skies" deal to expand their reach in the lucrative Asia-Pacific aviation market.

TOKYO: The man in charge of resurrecting Japan Airlines said Wednesday that the carrier is aggressively shedding its bad habits and moving toward financial health more quickly than expected. When chairman Kazuo Inamori, 78, took over nine months ago, Japan Airlines, known as JAL, was a sick company. It had just filed for one of the biggest corporate bankruptcies in Japanese history, saddled with $25.6 billion in debt, unprofitable routes and a bloated workforce. Inamori, one of Japan's most celebrated entrepreneurs of his generation, was tapped to lead a turnaround.

NEW DELHI: The CBI's move to file a closure report in a 30-year-old case of cheating of an insurance company by four persons today irked a Delhi court which asked the agency to look into the delay and fix the responsibility on concerned officers. Special CBI Judge Narottam Kaushal pulled up the CBI, which filed the closure report in a case of cheating of the National Insurance Company 30 years ago, saying that three of the accused had died and documents of the case are missing.

NEW DELHI: Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal has pipped Air-India chief V Thulasidas to the post in the elections to the prestigious board of governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the apex body of the airline industry. The Jet Airways chief has been elected to the board for the year 2004-05 in the elections held last week in Singapore. Apart from various other parameters regional representation is one of the key deciding factors to be elected on the board.

NEW DELHI: Taking a leaf out of China, the US and the UK, who are aggressively seeking direct air connections with India, Japan is doubling the direct flights between the two countries. Japan's second largest airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA), plans to start a daily service between Delhi and Tokyo, which will double the direct flights between the two countries. Currently, Air India and Japan Airlines operate direct flights between the two countries. Majority of the passengers on the sector, however, have to take a detour via third country airports such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok due to paucity of direct connections.

SYDNEY: Boeing faced a backlash by airlines Thursday after further delaying delivery of its new 787 Dreamliner, with two carriers demanding compensation from the US plane-maker and others set to follow suit. Australia's Qantas and Air New Zealand both said they wanted compensation from Boeing for pushing back the long-awaited jet's delivery schedule for the third time, while Japan Airlines (JAL) said the situation was "deplorable. " JAL and All Nippon Airways (ANA)

NEW DELHI: A committee, which suggested measures to lower the high costs of Air India's operations and improve utilisation of its resources including manpower, submitted its report to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh here today. "The recommendations of this committee will have a far- reaching impact on the airline's financial health. It is a useful report, which could help implementation of Air India's Turnaround and Financial Restructuring Plans," Singh told reporters after accepting the report of the panel which has made 46 major recommendations.

FRANKFURT: German carmaker BMW and car supplier Bosch said on Saturday they would join Deutsche Bahn in two claims for about 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in damages from air freight carriers who were involved in a cartel. The air cargo cartel, which included Europe's biggest airline Lufthansa and British Airways, was first discovered seven years ago and triggered fines in the European Union and in the United States. Confirming a report in German magazine WirtschaftsWoche, spokespeople for BMW and Bosch said the companies had joined the lawsuits, announced by Deutsche Bahn in December.

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks rose 0.55 per cent on Thursday, led by buying on dips after the previous day's fall, as well as gains in energy shares on higher oil prices. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which hit 15-year highs earlier this week, added 103.12 points, to 18,688.32 by the break. The Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.35 per cent, or 5.26 points, to 1,512.88. Profit taking snapped the Nikkei's five-day winning streak on Wednesday after the benchmark index reached levels not seen since the turn of the century.